


Sparring Troubles

by ShyFicWriter



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Accidental Tickling, Gen, Secrets, Sparring, Tickling, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21754270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyFicWriter/pseuds/ShyFicWriter
Summary: Gef almost discovers your secret during a sparring match.
Kudos: 8





	Sparring Troubles

“Hey, you heading to the training room?” you asked Peter on your way to said room yourself.

“Nah, I gotta head out for a scavenging job on Achernon.”

“Ugh! Lucky!” You groan. You hated surprise training days, especially if Peter couldn’t be there to be your partner. Some of the crew could be a little too rough, and possibly worse were the ones who went way too easy because you’re a girl. You bid Peter a farewell and make the rest of the way down to the training room, hoping you at least got paired with someone decent.

Once in the training room you lined up with the other Ravagers who didn’t have a job to leave for that day, facing Yondu and Kraglin who were giving instructions on how they wanted you all to proceed with the session. 

Once they explained that this was going to be a mostly routine training session where you would be sparring in hand to hand combat Yondu called out the pairs who would be partners in sparring.

You looked down the line. There were six of you in the training room today. Retch, Horuz, Narblik, Tullk, Gef, and yourself. Narblik was closer to you in height, but he definitely outweighed you, so you were relieved when he got paired with Tullk instead. You didn’t think you’d mind being paired with Retch, as he was usually a decent partner, even if he was insane. At least he wouldn’t crush you if he fell on you. Unfortunately he got paired with Horuz instead. That left… Gef. Crap. Why’d it’d have to be Gef? He was dumber than a box of rocks and you dreaded having to be his sparing partner. You gave Yondu an exasperated look when he paired you, but he ignored it.

Begrudgingly you joined your partner and waited for the go-ahead from your captain to start.

“Alright, assholes,” Yondu started, “today I want ya to focus on using your enemies weaknesses against them. Ya find it, ya use it. Hear me?”

After a nod from all of you he gave the go ahead to start sparring, before quickly throwing in a reminder to keep everything above the belt and to avoid the eyes. “This is just a sparrin’ match. I don’t wanna have to send anyone to Med Bay ‘cause they lost an eye!”

There were grunts and nods of agreement before everyone began for real.

You looked at Gef in annoyance as he took the most ridiculous fighting stance you had ever seen before sighing and charging him, aiming a punch to his left side. He tried to block and failed, but did succeed in grabbing you about the waist, after which he tried to take you down to the floor.

You twisted and tried to push him away by his shoulders when suddenly you felt him squeeze at your lower ribs. You bit back a yelp and your hands flew down to grab his wrists which you promptly shoved away before knocking him down to the ground and pinning him.

“What the fuck was that?” you scolded him irritably, loud enough to get Kraglin’s attention and make him look over.

“I read somewhere that you Terrans have some kinda Vagus Nerve there. That if it get’s hit you’ll collapse in pain. Captain did say ‘find your enemy’s weakness.’”

“You idiot. It’s not in my ribs!” you growl, trying to act annoyed so he wouldn’t try it again. Your goal was to make him think he had only pissed you off because it moderately hurt, rather than the truth that it tickled. You really weren’t looking forward to that secret getting out, especially after Yondu made it clear the crew might try to exploit that ‘Terran weakness’ of yours and Peter’s if they found out about it.

“Don’t suppose you’d be willing to point it out for me then?” Gef chuckled as he managed to turn the tables, getting out of your pin and managing to twist your arm behind your back, forcing you to your knees. 

“Dumbass, even if I knew you think I’d just tell you?” You rolled forward, launching him over your back and onto the floor in front of you, startling him into letting go. 

It was true that you didn’t really know where the nerve was. You had seen on a TV show that supposedly if you hit someone in a specific place in the gut you’d trigger the vagus nerve and it’d send them into a world of hurt, collapsing to the ground and whatnot like Gef said, but you didn’t even know if that was true or just pulled out of someone’s butt for the episode. But again, even if you did know, Gef was dumb to think you’d just tell him.

You attempted to pull Gef into a half-nelson, but he only reached with his free arm and grabbed at your side this time, making you drop him. That tickled worse than the first time and you had to fight from letting a grin slip.

“What are you even doing?!” You scolded, trying to make your voice sound as irritated and accusatory as possible so that he’d realize the effort was useless and then he’d quit unintentionally tickling you.

Kraglin had seen the exchange this time and walked over to Yondu and warned him that they should keep an eye on you two, worried that the ship’s idiot might accidentally figure out your weakness, or worse, reveal it to the others.

Gef, however, was unfazed, stating that he thought he might as well try and continue to find it.

“Just spar like you aren’t an idiot,” you scold, hoping this might dissuade him, “you’re just embarrassing yourself.” This time you went at him with the intent to put him in a full nelson, but he caught you off guard, going straight for your abdomen and prodding around. His momentum, combined with the fact that this also, really, really tickled, sent you on your back. You gritted your teeth. “Gef, you idiot!” you growled, hopefully loud enough that Yondu or Kraglin would hear it over the noise of the other’s sparring. “Just give it up already! You’re being stupid!” A grin was starting to crack your face and you were losing your battle to stop from laughing.

Yondu and Kraglin quickly noticed this and quickly but calmly started to walk over to you two, knowing they needed to break this up sooner or later and probably do some damage control.

Gef wouldn’t listen, believing he was going to find out how to trigger that nerve and kept prodding at your abdomen. 

You couldn’t take it anymore and started laughing. It just tickled so bad. Gef gave you a strange look. “Why does this make you laugh?” he asked, continuing the motions.

Crap. You thought you were screwed for a moment before you quickly thought how you could to spin your reaction in a different way.

You brought a hand up to your face and tried your best not to squirm, but allowed yourself to laugh, not like you could have stopped if you wanted to. “Gef, you absolute buffoon!” you laughed. “I’m laughing at YOU! You’re so dumb, it’s hysterical!”

Yondu and Kraglin had reached you by this point. They had heard your attempt at a cover, and while it might be mostly convincing, they knew some damage control was still needed, as the others were starting to get curious and stare.

Yondu pinched the bridge of his nose and Kraglin put on the most convincing annoyed face he could muster. 

“Gef, get off her.” Yondu said in a very unimpressed voice. “That’s the worst technique I’ve ever seen. Ya know better than that.”

Gef obeyed, halting his actions and standing, immediately apologizing for disappointing his captain.

You of course, were still giggly with residual laughter, but trying to calm yourself as Yondu crossed his arms and looked down at you to also give you a scolding. 

“If ya can’t take this seriously, young lady, then maybe you need to go take a break to clean the toilets on the lower deck.”

You knew he was trying to make it look good by punishing you (and also unfortunately that you’d likely have to follow through with the punishment), so you played along, trying to act indignant and you stood from the floor. “It’s not my fault this dumbass doesn’t know how to fight!”

Keeping up the ruse, Yondu narrowed his eyes at you. “Now.” he ordered. “Then when you’re done ya can come back and yer gonna spar Kraglin.”

You grumble out a “Yes, sir.” before pretending to leave the training room disgruntled, when in truth you couldn’t wait to be anywhere else. As you left you could hear Yondu scolding Gef on his ‘bad form’ and Kraglin instructing Tullk to come spar with Gef instead and ‘show him some decent technique.’

***

When you finally come later back most of the rest of the crew were leaving the training room, and only Yondu, Kraglin, and Gef remained, who was still being scolded by the other two on ‘bad form’ and ‘inappropriate fighting technique.’

When they saw you they even made Gef “Apologize to the young lady for the shitty sparrin’ session.” 

Of course, they had to make you apologize as well for ‘not taking it seriously’ to make it all look good before they sent Gef away to clean the grease traps in the kitchen.

As soon as he was gone Kraglin shut the door and locked it, most likely to keep anyone from walking in as you all discussed what happened.

“That was a close call today, missy.” Yondu warned.

You sighed. “I know.”

“Ya really gotta learn how to hide your reaction to that.”

You looked at him in annoyance. “I can’t! Don’t you think I tried! What part of ‘involuntary hysteric laughter’ don’t you get? I can’t control it!” You were blushing now, crossing your arms in frustration. 

“Gotta try harder. We don’t want the crew finding this out about you and Peter, they’ll abuse the hell outta it.”

You sighed again, “I know! But maybe next time don’t pair me with an idiot!”

“What was he trying to do anyway?” Kraglin asked. “He kept trying to say something about a nerve?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. He said he read that us Terrans have one called a vagus nerve and that if it got hit we’d collapse. I think what he actually heard about was a liver punch but was too dumb to know what he actually read.”

Yondu shook his head. “Damn that guy is dumb. That ain’t a Terran thing. It works on everyone. Most bi-pedal bodies are set up similar enough, especially mammalian ones.”

“Good to know,” you chuckle, before remembering what Yondu said earlier about sparring Kraglin and sighing, not really feeling up to it. “Do I really still have to spar with Kraglin now?” 

“Yes, missy, ya do.”

You rolled your eyes and relented, figuring you might as well get it over with. You took your position in front of Kraglin and waited for Yondu to give the go-ahead. Moments before he did you noticed Kraglin was wearing a rather mischievous smirk, and this caught you off guard, but not as much as when Yondu ended his count down with “… two… one… get her!”

“Wait, what?” was all you got out before Kraglin pounced on you, knocking you to the floor, and before you knew it you were a puddle of giggles as he scribbled his fingers under your arms.

“Wait! No!” you squealed, “No fair!!”

“What’s not fair about it? He’s using yer weakness against ya just like I said earlier.” Yondu chuckled, watching as you squealed and squirmed with laughter, unable to free yourself from Kraglin’s evil grip and already trying to tap out.

Needless to say, you lost that sparring match. But at least you never got paired with Gef again.


End file.
